By Charles Romans
Carter County Times
Grayson City Council held a special meeting last Wednesday to discuss time sensitive business concerning the city, beginning with the ongoing sidewalk project. Mayor Troy Combs informed the council that he had a progress meeting with Bell Engineering the previous day.
“They are pretty much done,” Combs told the council. “They just have a few more things to finish up, then they will be done with Phase One and Phase Two of the project.”
“I let them know that the city council wanted to proceed with Phase Three, and we were going to finance the money,” Combs continued. “Originally the contractor told me that they could come back mid-October. Now he stated that he could come back mid-November. I don’t see a problem with that other than that there is a little asphalt work needing to be done, and most asphalt places shut down by then. So, we will have to come up with something for that.”
The change in timing, Combs said, would also necessitate a change in the financing, which in this case would mean there would be more time before financing would be needed, which would allow the council to ‘shop around’ for the best interest rate and potentially save taxpayer money.
“I have some rates available today,” Combs told the council. “But everyone is thinking the rates will go down in September. So, we could wait to see if those rates drop and resubmit our request.”
The city is intending to finance $180,000 for Phase Three of the sidewalk project. The rates Combs said he had been quoted from local lending institutions were 5.54 on a five-year note, and 4.5 on a six-year note.
Combs recommended to the council that the city wait to secure financing until the next phase of the project was set to begin. Councilman Dustin Burchett agreed with Combs’ recommendation, and cited the possibility that those types of projects typically slow down toward the end of the year and might not pick up again until early 2025. Other factors included the terms of the grant connected to the project, which only stipulated the work be completed by the end of 2025, and payment for the next phase not being required until that phase was well underway. After discussion, the council decided to delay financing until a future date.
The next item discussed in the special meeting was a purchase agreement for the property at 201 Robert and Mary Avenue. The property is near the city building and could prove useful to the city, according to Combs, who provided the council with a tentative agreement.
“We saw that the property was up for sale and spoke to some city council members who expressed an interest in the city purchasing it,” Combs said.
He told the council that he believed it was a good price for the property ($37,000) but made them aware that what was listed was only that portion of land where an apartment building had burned down, and not any of the adjacent structures. The adjacent property is owned by a different individual. That property owner told Combs he was not certain if he would be interested in selling. After discussion, the council voted unanimously to proceed with the property purchase.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
